Top Gambling Sites in Puerto Rico - November 2024

Gambling Laws in Puerto Rico

Gambling in Puerto Rico is legal in all of its variety. Within the Puerto Rican gambling legislation, the Law on Games of Chance (Ley de Juegos de Azar) from 2004 is considered to be the main regulatory act of all gambling activities in the country. This act makes all forms of land-based gambling legal in Puerto Rico. Online gambling, with the sole exception of horse race betting, is not regulated with this act. In 2018 an initiative has been proposed under the name “Chamber Project 1696” (El Proyecto de la Cámara 1696), which aims to create a legislation that will make online gambling legal in Puerto Rico. As of October 2018, no decisions in this regard have been announced. The regulatory body of the land-based activities in the country is the Commission for Tourism and Social Wellbeing of Puerto Rico (La Comisión de Turismo y Bienestar Social de Puerto Rico). As the online gambling sector is still unregulated there is nobody that supervises the accessibility to online gambling sites in Puerto Rico. Besides its function as a supervisor, the Commission is the official body that grants licenses to all Puerto Rican casinos, sportsbooks, or other types of gambling providers, brick and mortar as well as online.  According to Puerto Rican gambling laws minors, under 18 years of age are prohibited to participate in gambling activities.

Is Online Gambling Legal in Puerto Rico? All forms of online gambling, with the exception of horse race betting in Puerto Rico, are not regulated.

Online Casinos in Puerto Rico

The casinos in Inter Continental, Marriott and the Hilton hotels at San Juan are some of the most widely visited by casino lovers in the country. The most diverse offer of casino games can be found in the Stellaris Casino at San Juan Marriott which is the largest casino in the country with around 500 gaming machines and 26 table games. However, as of March 2019, there are no online casinos in Puerto Rico. Online gambling in the country is in general unregulated, and consequently, there are no licensed Puerto Rican internet casino sites either. Foreign licensed operators are actively blocked for accessing the Puerto Rican market.

Online Poker in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican poker is mainly practiced by the casinos operating the country which are located in some of its most luxurious hotels. For tourists in this Central American country, the most popular destination for poker has for years been the casino in the Inter Continental Hotel. Some of the poker games that can regularly be played there include Texas Hold’Em, Three-card poker, and Caribbean Stud Poker. Since there are no Puerto Rican online poker laws, as of March 2019, there are no licensed Puerto Rican online poker sites yet to operate the market in the country. Most of the online poker sites that Puerto Ricans play are those of the bigger foreign websites which are, however, freely available from the country.

Online Lottery in Puerto Rico

Although there are no specific Puerto Rican online lottery laws, the regulations derived from Law on Games of Chance (Ley de Juegos de Azar) from 2004, serve as a basic legal framework, which makes online lotto legal in this country. The monopoly of the lotto market in the country is held by the national lottery. Established by the Puerto Rico Treasury Department the Puerto Rican National Lottery finds its origin back in 1934. However, the first draw by using electronic devices were held in 1990 when they launched one of the most popular lottery games in the country, the Pega 3 lotto. Due to the immense success of this game, the Puerto Rican lottery offered several extensions of it in 2002 known as the Pega 4 and Pega 2 lottery games. The Puerto Rican Lottery organizes six lotto draws per week, from Monday to Saturday all of which are broadcasted on Channel 6. The Puerto Rican online lotto market is, however, still underdeveloped as the national lottery does not offer a playing online lotto games on their website.

Online Bingo in Puerto Rico

Although there are no specific online bingo laws in Puerto Rico, the situation with the online legal status with this gambling game is not different than the one with the others. Due to the not regulated online gambling sector in general, there are no licensed sites offering online bingo in Puerto Rico, as of March 2019.

Online Sports Betting in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican sports betting is mainly being organized by casinos in the country in compliance with the Puerto Rican gambling laws. Since 2014 the government was trying to improve this sector by giving opportunities to the casinos to also organize the sport betting in Puerto Rico. However, not much has been done since. Traditional forms of betting in Puerto Rico mainly include horseracing as well as cockfighting. Horse race betting at the Hipodromo Camarero is a traditional pastime in Puerto Rico. When online sports betting in Puerto Rico, Gana Donde Sea is the only site authorized by the Puerto Rican gambling laws and launched by the Hipodromo Camarero, which offers some kind of sports betting online, being exclusively focused on horse racing. Foreign internet sportsbook sites are blocked from accessing the Puerto Rican market.

Online Daily Fantasy Sports in Puerto Rico

Online DFS sites in Puerto Rico do not have a legally regulated status. There is an ongoing debate on the status of this type of game, but considering the legality of online sports betting in the country it is very probable that internet Daily Fantasy Sports would soon receive a legal status in Puerto Rico.